Secretary

‘I’ll get one of the secretaries to do it. No problem John. See you mate’ and he put the phone down.
He scanned the office for a secretary.
These secretaries he never knew their names, never felt he needed to. As long as they knew his. They were shapes that drifted through the office. Like the cleaners and the cooks here, part of the infrastructure, like too the computer servers or the air conditioning, as long as it worked no need to give it any thought.
‘There’s one’ he thought having spotted Ann by the photocopier.
‘You’ he said gesturing in her direction as if he were trying to get the attention of a waiter.
She looked over in his direction having first cast a wary look at Julie looking up from her computer, words unspoken their eyes saying all that needed to be said.
‘That’s right, you’ he said ‘I’ve got something for you’.
She made her way over to him.
Secretaries should be seen never heard, like children, he thought, his mind unconstrained by the office rules of sexism and other equal opportunities etiquettes. And as with children he never knew what to say to them, he did not even venture awkward small talk.
‘Yes’ she said, a yes packed with far more implication than just ‘Yes’. Not that such subtleties would be understood by him, he was far too wrapped up in himself and his status in the office.
‘I need you to do something for me. And I need it done by two. So if you were thinking of going out for lunch forget it.’
She just looked at him as if to say ‘If you say so’.
Julie looked over from her desk at the two of them. ‘What now’ she thought and carried on typing. Shortly Ann joined her.
‘Well I’m going for my lunch’. She explained to Julie what was needed doing by two and if one of the other secretaries could do it.
For she knew that to him they were all as one.